Pastoral Vision Development
Pastoral Vision Development
Status Report to Executive Committee • April 27, 2026
Governing Question: Does this strengthen the faithful proclamation of the Word and
the administration of the Sacraments, through which the Holy Spirit brings people to
repentance, faith, and a life of sanctification?
Background
A consistent piece of feedback from the informational updates shared with WELS Waukesha
congregations in January and February was a request for a more concrete vision of what
ministry together would look like if the congregations united as one legal entity. At their February
3 meeting, the Executive Committee commissioned the pastors of the WELS Waukesha
congregations to develop that vision.
In the course of organizing this work, Pastor Borgwardt and Living Word congregation
expressed their desire to explore collaborative ministry but do not currently see advantages in
pursuing a legal merger with the other WELS Waukesha congregations. They are supportive of
Grace, Mt. Calvary, and Trinity continuing this conversation and wish God’s blessings on the
work of developing a shared vision for mission in Waukesha.
The pastors of Grace, Mt. Calvary, and Trinity have now met twice: first to surface the ministry
pressures and pain points facing their congregations, and subsequently to discuss how a
merged ministry could address those challenges while strengthening the proclamation of the
Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments across Waukesha.
This report summarizes what has emerged from those conversations. Its purpose is to aid the
Executive Committee in thoughtful, theologically grounded decision-making that keeps the care
of souls and the means of grace at the center.
I. Ministry Pressures Facing Our
Congregations
The pressures identified below are not primarily operational inconveniences. Each one
represents a constraint on the Church’s core work: the faithful proclamation of the Word and the
administration of the Sacraments through which the Holy Spirit creates and sustains faith. They
are named here in that light.
1. Shortage of Called Workers
The most acute pressure across all three congregations is the current and projected shortage of
called workers: pastors, teachers, and staff ministers. Recent examples include extended
pastoral and principal vacancies at Grace and Trinity, a current principal vacancy at Mt. Calvary,
and recurring teacher turnover.
When called workers are unavailable or stretched thin, the capacity for consistent preaching,
teaching, sacramental administration, and personal pastoral care contracts. The people of God
are left less fully served by the means through which the Spirit works.
2. Fragmented Proclamation and Duplicated Effort
Across the three congregations, ministry efforts, particularly in youth and family ministry, are
frequently duplicated rather than coordinated. The result is not simply inefficiency. It means that
limited pastoral and lay capacity is divided rather than concentrated where it can most
strengthen the proclamation and the disciple-making work that flows from it.
3. School-to-Congregation Disconnect
Our schools remain a significant point of Gospel contact with families in Waukesha. But there is
a recurring pattern in which that connection does not mature into sustained participation in Word
and Sacrament life. Families who encounter the Gospel through our schools frequently drift from
congregational life when school years end, leaving long-term discipleship and integration into
the body of Christ unrealized.
4. Structural Barriers to Shared Mission
Functioning as three independent congregations creates structural friction that makes genuine
collaboration difficult. Each congregation carries its own governance, resource pressures, and
operational demands. The result is that shared mission feels secondary rather than natural, and
true unity in ministry, the kind that reflects the one body and one Spirit of Ephesians 4, is difficult
to sustain without a more unified structure.
5. Uncoordinated Pastoral Care Across Congregations
Members move between congregations. Families span multiple campuses. Pastoral care
responsibilities that cross congregational lines are handled informally or inconsistently. A more
unified approach would allow for shared responsibility for souls and more consistent spiritual
oversight across the whole body in Waukesha.
6. Pastoral Time Consumed by Non-Proclamation Work
Across all three congregations, pastoral time is significantly consumed by administrative and
operational demands: facility management, event coordination, communication systems, and
organizational responsibilities that draw pastors away from preaching, teaching, sacramental
care, and the equipping of God’s people. The people of God are under-served when their
pastors are over-utilized administratively.
7. Underutilization of Lay Gifts for Ministry
The gifts of God’s people, lay men and women equipped by Word and Sacrament for works of
service, are not being consistently identified, organized, and engaged. Pastoral time spent on
administrative work is time not spent equipping the laity. The body of Christ in Waukesha has
more Spirit-empowered capacity for ministry than current structures are drawing out.
8. Limited Capacity for Faith Formation and Spiritual Maturation
Bandwidth limitations across all three congregations constrain the depth and consistency of faith
formation: mentoring, leadership development, intentional discipling environments, and spiritual
care systems that sustain lifelong growth in faith. The Spirit works through the Word in all of
these, and current structures limit how thoroughly that Word can be applied throughout the life
of a congregation.
9. Society's Attitude Toward Church/Religion
Regular (weekly) worship attendance is decreasing in American culture. The current
infrastructure was put in place at a time when Sunday morning was a time for church. Declining
participation in ministry makes it increasingly challenging to maintain the campus infrastructure
at our three churches. Ministry needs and costs of doing ministry are increasing, often outpacing
stewardship of time, talent, and treasure. Each congregation feels the increasing weight of
these pressures.
II. Means-of-Grace Opportunities in a Merged Approach
The opportunities below are evaluated not primarily as organizational gains, but as ways a
merged ministry could strengthen the delivery of the means of grace and deepen the equipping
of God’s people for the work of ministry.
1. Called Workers Freed for Proclamation and Equipping
A merged structure could align called workers more deliberately with their primary vocation:
preaching, teaching, administering the Sacraments, speaking absolution, and equipping God’s
people for works of service. Reducing the administrative burden on pastors is not primarily an
efficiency gain. It is a means-of-grace gain. More pastoral time proclaiming the Word and
administering the font and Table means more people being genuinely restored through those
means.
2. Stronger and More Consistent Gospel Proclamation
A unified approach to preaching, teaching, and sacramental administration could raise the
consistency and quality of proclamation across all three campuses. Coordinated preaching
series, shared Bible class content, and unified sacramental practice would strengthen the
foundation on which the Spirit builds: one apostolic Word, one cornerstone, one body.
3. Deeper and More Sustained Disciple Formation
Merged ministry creates opportunity to nurture intentional environments for growth from first
Gospel contact through school, from baptism through confirmation, into a lifetime of Word and
Sacrament participation. The school-to-congregation connection, currently one of the most
significant points of discipleship loss, could be strengthened with intentional, unified catechesis
and pastoral follow-through across the full span of a family’s life in Waukesha.
4. Expanded Gospel Reach into the Community
Working as one ministry could increase the number of points from which the Gospel is
proclaimed into Waukesha into neighborhoods, families, schools, and workplaces. A unified
body, better resourced and coordinated, can sustain more outreach effort than three
independent congregations each carrying their own full operational load.
5. The Laity Equipped and Engaged in Ministry
Merged ministry draws together more of God’s people and their gifts, where they can be more
fully identified, organized, and engaged. Lay ministry teams coordinated across three campuses
could sustain outreach, youth discipleship, fellowship, and care efforts that no single
congregation currently has the capacity to maintain. The body grows as more people are
engaging in Spirit-empowered ministry, directly proclaiming the Word, or engaging in supporting
activities that enable called workers to remain focused on means of grace ministry efforts.
6. Administrative Consolidation in Service of the Mission
A unified model could consolidate business management, communications, scheduling, and
facility coordination, not as an end in itself, but explicitly to free called workers for their primary
responsibilities. Administrative efficiency is legitimate when it is in deliberate service of
proclamation; it is a distraction when it becomes its own goal.
7. Stronger Ministry Programs Rooted in the Means of Grace
Pooling resources could support more sustained youth ministry, mentoring programs, and
spiritual care systems, each understood as contexts in which the Word is proclaimed and the
Spirit works. A merged ministry could provide more robust structures for faith formation without
requiring each campus to sustain full programming independently.
III. Questions Requiring Further Discernment
The pastors have identified areas that require further conversation before a concrete proposal
can be brought to congregations. These are not obstacles to the vision; they are the terrain
through which a theologically grounded path must be carefully built.
1. The Nature of Unity
What does it mean to function as one ministry in a way that reflects the unity Christ has already
given: one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism (Eph. 4:4–5)? How is that unity
expressed structurally while honoring the history, identity, and pastoral relationships of each
congregation and its people?
2. Strengthening Pastoral Care
Pastoral Care isn’t just conceptual. It’s personal. The means of grace are administered
personally. Baptism is spoken over a specific child. Absolution is given to a specific sinner. The
Lord’s Supper is placed in specific hands. Parishioners have developed relationships with “their”
pastor. In working through details of a merged ministry, special care and attention is needed for
how to pastor individual people through such a transition, helping them see and experience the
advantages, strengthening pastoral relationships through which the means of grace are
delivered to specific people in specific circumstances.
3. Navigating Congregational Culture and History
Grace, Mt. Calvary, and Trinity carry different histories, traditions, and congregational cultures.
A merged ministry must be built with genuine care for those differences, not erasing them, but
discerning together what each congregation’s heritage contributes to a shared mission and what
practices should be unified for the sake of that mission.
4. The Cost of Genuine Unity
Real unity, the kind that reflects the one body of Christ rather than a cooperative arrangement
between independent entities, requires trust, sacrifice, and change. What will that cost look like
concretely, and how do congregations count it honestly while remaining confident that Christ
himself is building his Church?
5. Long-Term Sustainability
Will a merged model provide greater long-term stability in staffing, proclamation, and the
spiritual care of souls or does it carry its own risks of fragility? This question deserves honest
evaluation rather than optimistic assumption.
IV. An Initial Vision for Merged Ministry
Christ builds his Church. He does it through the faithful proclamation of his Word and the
administration of his Sacraments, through which the Holy Spirit creates faith, restores his
people, and sends them into the world as his witnesses.
The congregations of Grace, Mt. Calvary, and Trinity share one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
and one apostolic foundation. We serve the same city. We face the same pressures. And we
have begun to ask whether the unity Christ has already given us in himself might be more fully
expressed and more fruitfully engaged as one ministry.
A merged ministry is not primarily an organizational solution. It is a means-of-grace question.
The compelling concern is: Christ restoring his people through Word and Sacrament into fitness
for the ministry he has called them to do (a concept captured by the Greek word: katartismos).
Every structural decision will be evaluated against that standard: does this strengthen the
delivery of the means of grace, equipping people to carry out the service to which God calls
them, faithfully engaging God's people in Christ's mission in Waukesha?
The following represents the pastors’ initial thinking about what ministry together could look like
in practice. It is offered as a starting point for congregational discernment, concrete enough to
evaluate, flexible enough to develop. Every element is proposed in light of the governing
question: does this strengthen the proclamation of the Word and the administration of the
Sacraments?
Word and Sacrament at Every Campus
Sunday worship and study opportunities would remain at all three campuses. The commitment
is not to consolidate the primary points of Word and Sacrament contact, but to ensure that every
campus is served with excellent, consistent proclamation and sacramental care, freed from the
constraints that fragmented structures currently impose.
Coordinated Preaching and Teaching
Pastoral gifts could be coordinated across campuses, preaching series shared (or preaching
rotations developed), Bible class content unified, and pastoral talent engaged where it is most
needed rather than divided by congregational boundary. This reduces the preaching burden on
individual pastors while raising the quality and consistency of the Word proclaimed across all
three locations.
Consolidated Seasonal and Midweek Worship
Seasonal and midweek worship opportunities (Advent, Lent, Holy Thursday, Good Friday,
Ascension, and others) could be offered at a single location, drawing the whole body together
around Word and Sacrament in a way that strengthens unity and sustains these services with
healthy attendance rather than thin, duplicated gatherings.
Ministry Groups Unified for Greater Strength
Groups currently duplicated across campuses (men’s groups, women’s groups, OWLS, youth,
Pioneers, young families) could be consolidated into single groups drawing from all three
congregations. The aim is not administrative convenience but spiritual vitality: larger, stronger
communities of mutual encouragement rooted in shared faith and the common means of grace.
Specialized and Coordinated Pastoral Care
Visitation ministry (hospital, shut-in, prison) could be organized with deliberate pastoral
specialization, ensuring that specific people receive consistent, personal spiritual care rather
than piecemeal attention divided across three independent schedules. Shared responsibility for
souls across the merged body would be named, structured, and accountable.
Unified Ministry Teams Equipping the Laity
Duplicated ministry teams (outreach, youth discipleship, fellowship, technology, worship
planning, communications) could be consolidated into single teams drawing gifts from across all
three campuses. The goal is not consolidation for its own sake but the fuller equipping and
deployment of the laity: God’s people, restored through Word and Sacrament, organized and
sent for the ministry Christ has called them to do in Waukesha.
Consolidated Administrative Support
A unified business and administrative structure would consolidate functions currently handled
independently at each campus (finance, facilities, communications, scheduling) explicitly in
service of freeing called workers for proclamation and equipping. Administration follows mission;
it does not define it.
Conclusion
Two meetings in, the pastors of Grace, Mt. Calvary, and Trinity have moved from naming
pressures to sketching a model. What began as an honest inventory of constraints (staffing
shortages, fragmented proclamation, disconnected schools, pastoral time consumed by
administration) has become an initial vision for what ministry together could look like in practice:
Word and Sacrament at every campus, coordinated proclamation, unified equipping of the laity,
and a school pathway that draws families into a lifetime of congregational life rather than losing
them when 8th grade ends.
The questions that remain are not signs that the vision is fragile. They are the normal terrain of
discernment that any significant and faithful decision requires. The pastors are committed to
working through them carefully with each other and their current congregations, with the
governing question in view at every turn.
Christ is building his Church. He was doing so before these conversations began, and he will
continue doing so whatever shape they take. The pastors bring this report not as men who must
get this exactly right or the mission will fail, but as men who have been entrusted with a question
worth answering well and the trust that Christ is the builder and that his means are sufficient for
what he intends to build.
Does this strengthen the faithful proclamation of the Word and the administration of
the Sacraments, through which the Holy Spirit brings people to repentance, faith,
and a life of sanctification? With that question governing every decision, further
discussion can proceed with both confidence and humility.
Status Report to Executive Committee • April 27, 2026
Governing Question: Does this strengthen the faithful proclamation of the Word and
the administration of the Sacraments, through which the Holy Spirit brings people to
repentance, faith, and a life of sanctification?
Background
A consistent piece of feedback from the informational updates shared with WELS Waukesha
congregations in January and February was a request for a more concrete vision of what
ministry together would look like if the congregations united as one legal entity. At their February
3 meeting, the Executive Committee commissioned the pastors of the WELS Waukesha
congregations to develop that vision.
In the course of organizing this work, Pastor Borgwardt and Living Word congregation
expressed their desire to explore collaborative ministry but do not currently see advantages in
pursuing a legal merger with the other WELS Waukesha congregations. They are supportive of
Grace, Mt. Calvary, and Trinity continuing this conversation and wish God’s blessings on the
work of developing a shared vision for mission in Waukesha.
The pastors of Grace, Mt. Calvary, and Trinity have now met twice: first to surface the ministry
pressures and pain points facing their congregations, and subsequently to discuss how a
merged ministry could address those challenges while strengthening the proclamation of the
Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments across Waukesha.
This report summarizes what has emerged from those conversations. Its purpose is to aid the
Executive Committee in thoughtful, theologically grounded decision-making that keeps the care
of souls and the means of grace at the center.
I. Ministry Pressures Facing Our
Congregations
The pressures identified below are not primarily operational inconveniences. Each one
represents a constraint on the Church’s core work: the faithful proclamation of the Word and the
administration of the Sacraments through which the Holy Spirit creates and sustains faith. They
are named here in that light.
1. Shortage of Called Workers
The most acute pressure across all three congregations is the current and projected shortage of
called workers: pastors, teachers, and staff ministers. Recent examples include extended
pastoral and principal vacancies at Grace and Trinity, a current principal vacancy at Mt. Calvary,
and recurring teacher turnover.
When called workers are unavailable or stretched thin, the capacity for consistent preaching,
teaching, sacramental administration, and personal pastoral care contracts. The people of God
are left less fully served by the means through which the Spirit works.
2. Fragmented Proclamation and Duplicated Effort
Across the three congregations, ministry efforts, particularly in youth and family ministry, are
frequently duplicated rather than coordinated. The result is not simply inefficiency. It means that
limited pastoral and lay capacity is divided rather than concentrated where it can most
strengthen the proclamation and the disciple-making work that flows from it.
3. School-to-Congregation Disconnect
Our schools remain a significant point of Gospel contact with families in Waukesha. But there is
a recurring pattern in which that connection does not mature into sustained participation in Word
and Sacrament life. Families who encounter the Gospel through our schools frequently drift from
congregational life when school years end, leaving long-term discipleship and integration into
the body of Christ unrealized.
4. Structural Barriers to Shared Mission
Functioning as three independent congregations creates structural friction that makes genuine
collaboration difficult. Each congregation carries its own governance, resource pressures, and
operational demands. The result is that shared mission feels secondary rather than natural, and
true unity in ministry, the kind that reflects the one body and one Spirit of Ephesians 4, is difficult
to sustain without a more unified structure.
5. Uncoordinated Pastoral Care Across Congregations
Members move between congregations. Families span multiple campuses. Pastoral care
responsibilities that cross congregational lines are handled informally or inconsistently. A more
unified approach would allow for shared responsibility for souls and more consistent spiritual
oversight across the whole body in Waukesha.
6. Pastoral Time Consumed by Non-Proclamation Work
Across all three congregations, pastoral time is significantly consumed by administrative and
operational demands: facility management, event coordination, communication systems, and
organizational responsibilities that draw pastors away from preaching, teaching, sacramental
care, and the equipping of God’s people. The people of God are under-served when their
pastors are over-utilized administratively.
7. Underutilization of Lay Gifts for Ministry
The gifts of God’s people, lay men and women equipped by Word and Sacrament for works of
service, are not being consistently identified, organized, and engaged. Pastoral time spent on
administrative work is time not spent equipping the laity. The body of Christ in Waukesha has
more Spirit-empowered capacity for ministry than current structures are drawing out.
8. Limited Capacity for Faith Formation and Spiritual Maturation
Bandwidth limitations across all three congregations constrain the depth and consistency of faith
formation: mentoring, leadership development, intentional discipling environments, and spiritual
care systems that sustain lifelong growth in faith. The Spirit works through the Word in all of
these, and current structures limit how thoroughly that Word can be applied throughout the life
of a congregation.
9. Society's Attitude Toward Church/Religion
Regular (weekly) worship attendance is decreasing in American culture. The current
infrastructure was put in place at a time when Sunday morning was a time for church. Declining
participation in ministry makes it increasingly challenging to maintain the campus infrastructure
at our three churches. Ministry needs and costs of doing ministry are increasing, often outpacing
stewardship of time, talent, and treasure. Each congregation feels the increasing weight of
these pressures.
II. Means-of-Grace Opportunities in a Merged Approach
The opportunities below are evaluated not primarily as organizational gains, but as ways a
merged ministry could strengthen the delivery of the means of grace and deepen the equipping
of God’s people for the work of ministry.
1. Called Workers Freed for Proclamation and Equipping
A merged structure could align called workers more deliberately with their primary vocation:
preaching, teaching, administering the Sacraments, speaking absolution, and equipping God’s
people for works of service. Reducing the administrative burden on pastors is not primarily an
efficiency gain. It is a means-of-grace gain. More pastoral time proclaiming the Word and
administering the font and Table means more people being genuinely restored through those
means.
2. Stronger and More Consistent Gospel Proclamation
A unified approach to preaching, teaching, and sacramental administration could raise the
consistency and quality of proclamation across all three campuses. Coordinated preaching
series, shared Bible class content, and unified sacramental practice would strengthen the
foundation on which the Spirit builds: one apostolic Word, one cornerstone, one body.
3. Deeper and More Sustained Disciple Formation
Merged ministry creates opportunity to nurture intentional environments for growth from first
Gospel contact through school, from baptism through confirmation, into a lifetime of Word and
Sacrament participation. The school-to-congregation connection, currently one of the most
significant points of discipleship loss, could be strengthened with intentional, unified catechesis
and pastoral follow-through across the full span of a family’s life in Waukesha.
4. Expanded Gospel Reach into the Community
Working as one ministry could increase the number of points from which the Gospel is
proclaimed into Waukesha into neighborhoods, families, schools, and workplaces. A unified
body, better resourced and coordinated, can sustain more outreach effort than three
independent congregations each carrying their own full operational load.
5. The Laity Equipped and Engaged in Ministry
Merged ministry draws together more of God’s people and their gifts, where they can be more
fully identified, organized, and engaged. Lay ministry teams coordinated across three campuses
could sustain outreach, youth discipleship, fellowship, and care efforts that no single
congregation currently has the capacity to maintain. The body grows as more people are
engaging in Spirit-empowered ministry, directly proclaiming the Word, or engaging in supporting
activities that enable called workers to remain focused on means of grace ministry efforts.
6. Administrative Consolidation in Service of the Mission
A unified model could consolidate business management, communications, scheduling, and
facility coordination, not as an end in itself, but explicitly to free called workers for their primary
responsibilities. Administrative efficiency is legitimate when it is in deliberate service of
proclamation; it is a distraction when it becomes its own goal.
7. Stronger Ministry Programs Rooted in the Means of Grace
Pooling resources could support more sustained youth ministry, mentoring programs, and
spiritual care systems, each understood as contexts in which the Word is proclaimed and the
Spirit works. A merged ministry could provide more robust structures for faith formation without
requiring each campus to sustain full programming independently.
III. Questions Requiring Further Discernment
The pastors have identified areas that require further conversation before a concrete proposal
can be brought to congregations. These are not obstacles to the vision; they are the terrain
through which a theologically grounded path must be carefully built.
1. The Nature of Unity
What does it mean to function as one ministry in a way that reflects the unity Christ has already
given: one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism (Eph. 4:4–5)? How is that unity
expressed structurally while honoring the history, identity, and pastoral relationships of each
congregation and its people?
2. Strengthening Pastoral Care
Pastoral Care isn’t just conceptual. It’s personal. The means of grace are administered
personally. Baptism is spoken over a specific child. Absolution is given to a specific sinner. The
Lord’s Supper is placed in specific hands. Parishioners have developed relationships with “their”
pastor. In working through details of a merged ministry, special care and attention is needed for
how to pastor individual people through such a transition, helping them see and experience the
advantages, strengthening pastoral relationships through which the means of grace are
delivered to specific people in specific circumstances.
3. Navigating Congregational Culture and History
Grace, Mt. Calvary, and Trinity carry different histories, traditions, and congregational cultures.
A merged ministry must be built with genuine care for those differences, not erasing them, but
discerning together what each congregation’s heritage contributes to a shared mission and what
practices should be unified for the sake of that mission.
4. The Cost of Genuine Unity
Real unity, the kind that reflects the one body of Christ rather than a cooperative arrangement
between independent entities, requires trust, sacrifice, and change. What will that cost look like
concretely, and how do congregations count it honestly while remaining confident that Christ
himself is building his Church?
5. Long-Term Sustainability
Will a merged model provide greater long-term stability in staffing, proclamation, and the
spiritual care of souls or does it carry its own risks of fragility? This question deserves honest
evaluation rather than optimistic assumption.
IV. An Initial Vision for Merged Ministry
Christ builds his Church. He does it through the faithful proclamation of his Word and the
administration of his Sacraments, through which the Holy Spirit creates faith, restores his
people, and sends them into the world as his witnesses.
The congregations of Grace, Mt. Calvary, and Trinity share one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
and one apostolic foundation. We serve the same city. We face the same pressures. And we
have begun to ask whether the unity Christ has already given us in himself might be more fully
expressed and more fruitfully engaged as one ministry.
A merged ministry is not primarily an organizational solution. It is a means-of-grace question.
The compelling concern is: Christ restoring his people through Word and Sacrament into fitness
for the ministry he has called them to do (a concept captured by the Greek word: katartismos).
Every structural decision will be evaluated against that standard: does this strengthen the
delivery of the means of grace, equipping people to carry out the service to which God calls
them, faithfully engaging God's people in Christ's mission in Waukesha?
The following represents the pastors’ initial thinking about what ministry together could look like
in practice. It is offered as a starting point for congregational discernment, concrete enough to
evaluate, flexible enough to develop. Every element is proposed in light of the governing
question: does this strengthen the proclamation of the Word and the administration of the
Sacraments?
Word and Sacrament at Every Campus
Sunday worship and study opportunities would remain at all three campuses. The commitment
is not to consolidate the primary points of Word and Sacrament contact, but to ensure that every
campus is served with excellent, consistent proclamation and sacramental care, freed from the
constraints that fragmented structures currently impose.
Coordinated Preaching and Teaching
Pastoral gifts could be coordinated across campuses, preaching series shared (or preaching
rotations developed), Bible class content unified, and pastoral talent engaged where it is most
needed rather than divided by congregational boundary. This reduces the preaching burden on
individual pastors while raising the quality and consistency of the Word proclaimed across all
three locations.
Consolidated Seasonal and Midweek Worship
Seasonal and midweek worship opportunities (Advent, Lent, Holy Thursday, Good Friday,
Ascension, and others) could be offered at a single location, drawing the whole body together
around Word and Sacrament in a way that strengthens unity and sustains these services with
healthy attendance rather than thin, duplicated gatherings.
Ministry Groups Unified for Greater Strength
Groups currently duplicated across campuses (men’s groups, women’s groups, OWLS, youth,
Pioneers, young families) could be consolidated into single groups drawing from all three
congregations. The aim is not administrative convenience but spiritual vitality: larger, stronger
communities of mutual encouragement rooted in shared faith and the common means of grace.
Specialized and Coordinated Pastoral Care
Visitation ministry (hospital, shut-in, prison) could be organized with deliberate pastoral
specialization, ensuring that specific people receive consistent, personal spiritual care rather
than piecemeal attention divided across three independent schedules. Shared responsibility for
souls across the merged body would be named, structured, and accountable.
Unified Ministry Teams Equipping the Laity
Duplicated ministry teams (outreach, youth discipleship, fellowship, technology, worship
planning, communications) could be consolidated into single teams drawing gifts from across all
three campuses. The goal is not consolidation for its own sake but the fuller equipping and
deployment of the laity: God’s people, restored through Word and Sacrament, organized and
sent for the ministry Christ has called them to do in Waukesha.
Consolidated Administrative Support
A unified business and administrative structure would consolidate functions currently handled
independently at each campus (finance, facilities, communications, scheduling) explicitly in
service of freeing called workers for proclamation and equipping. Administration follows mission;
it does not define it.
Conclusion
Two meetings in, the pastors of Grace, Mt. Calvary, and Trinity have moved from naming
pressures to sketching a model. What began as an honest inventory of constraints (staffing
shortages, fragmented proclamation, disconnected schools, pastoral time consumed by
administration) has become an initial vision for what ministry together could look like in practice:
Word and Sacrament at every campus, coordinated proclamation, unified equipping of the laity,
and a school pathway that draws families into a lifetime of congregational life rather than losing
them when 8th grade ends.
The questions that remain are not signs that the vision is fragile. They are the normal terrain of
discernment that any significant and faithful decision requires. The pastors are committed to
working through them carefully with each other and their current congregations, with the
governing question in view at every turn.
Christ is building his Church. He was doing so before these conversations began, and he will
continue doing so whatever shape they take. The pastors bring this report not as men who must
get this exactly right or the mission will fail, but as men who have been entrusted with a question
worth answering well and the trust that Christ is the builder and that his means are sufficient for
what he intends to build.
Does this strengthen the faithful proclamation of the Word and the administration of
the Sacraments, through which the Holy Spirit brings people to repentance, faith,
and a life of sanctification? With that question governing every decision, further
discussion can proceed with both confidence and humility.